MyHeritage and Geni: Part II

This past Sunday, The Legal Genealogist couldn’t quite figure out how Geni and MyHeritage (its parent company) fit together and how the new DNA offerings on both were to work and so invited MyHeritage to explain things.

Yesterday, we learned about how the two differ: how the focus on Geni is a one-world collaborative tree and the focus on MyHeritage is on individual private trees on one side and on records on the other.

Today — what it costs and how the two work together.

Subscriptions

“MyHeritage and Geni are both Freemium services, meaning that they can be used for free to a certain extent, and for premium features and content, a subscription is required. As the services are separate, a subscription purchased on Geni does not provide benefits on MyHeritage, and vice versa. The subscriptions on both MyHeritage and Geni are annual.”

Geni

“Geni allows its users to do a lot for free. Building a tree on Geni and merging profiles is free.

“Geni offers a Geni Pro subscription for an annual fee of $119.40.

“Geni Pro provides access to matches between profiles on Geni (Geni tree matches), improved search capabilities on Geni that cover the entire Geni database, unlimited media upload and enhanced customer support. Geni Pro can be taken for a test drive with a 14-day free trial.

“At the moment a bundled subscription which includes Geni Pro + MyHeritage Data is not offered yet and users who want both need to buy them separately. Such a bundle is being contemplated.”

MyHeritage

“Basic (free) accounts on MyHeritage provide:

* Free Family Tree Builder software, for Windows and Mac, with the ability to build a family tree of up to 500,000 individuals on one’s computer (the limit is technical, it is not imposed). Latest version: 8.0. Developed since 2003 and highly maintained ever since. Very likely the world’s most popular free family tree software. Available in more than 40 languages.

* Free mobile app for iOS and Android.

* Up to 250 individuals in the online family tree on MyHeritage.com.

* Smart Matches™ – matches between family trees, are free to receive and view.

* Some free content in SuperSearch engine for historical records, such as 20 million gravestone records (BillionGraves collection) and 90 million pages from family history books, and more.

* Unlimited family tree charts.”

“MyHeritage offers Site subscriptions in two flavors: Premium and PremiumPlus.

“A Premium subscription on MyHeritage provides all the benefits of a Basic account, plus the following:

* Increased capacity of up to 2500 individuals in the online family tree on MyHeritage.com.

* Ability to confirm Smart Matches™ and do Quick Save – save new information from matches to one’s tree in one click. Ability to contact other tree owners with whom Smart Matches™ were found.

* Premium features of the Family Tree Builder software, for life – Smart Match merge wizard and all-in-one charts.

“A Data subscription on MyHeritage provides the following separate benefits:

* Access to all 7 billion historical records on MyHeritage’s SuperSearch engine for historical records, including international birth, marriage, death and census records, and many more. This also includes access to the Geni collection on MyHeritage which includes all the non-private Geni profiles.

* Access to all Record Matches – matches between family trees and historical records.

* Access to the Record Detective™ – matches between historical records and other historical records.

“The Complete subscription (formerly called Bundle) is the best plan, providing everything on MyHeritage as a combination of PremiumPlus and Data. Complete costs $250.80/year and a first-time purchase is discounted and costs only $179.40.”

DNA

“The DNA features on MyHeritage and Geni are separate and for the most part work independently of each other.

“DNA data upload for matching was announced on MyHeritage on May 19 2016.

“Matching on MyHeritage is for autosomal DNA data, and available for all users who have taken a DNA test on 23andMe, Ancestry, or the Family Tree DNA Family Finder test. The matching is planned for release in the late July – early August timeframe, with ethnicity reports and other DNA features to be released afterwards. For users who upload their DNA data now, matching will be free, permanently (thereafter MyHeritage has hinted that it may become a paid feature for users who upload their DNA data later on). The benefit of DNA matching on MyHeritage is getting additional matches, compared to those that one can obtain on the service with which one was originally tested, tight integration features with MyHeritage trees, and integration with the other MyHeritage matching technologies including Smart Matches and Records Matches.

“DNA integration and matching was announced separately on Geni on June 30 2016.

“The DNA functionality on Geni has been 1.5 years in development, and offers some unique features:

* DNA features on Geni are completely free, permanently. The DNA features apply to users who have had their DNA tested (or have had their relatives tested). For users who have not had their DNA tested, Geni currently sells discounted DNA tests powered by Family Tree DNA. See https://www.geni.com/dna-tests

* It uniquely supports Y-DNA and mtDNA (these are tests sold only by FamilyTreeDNA, that provide matches based on the direct paternal and direct maternal lines).

* Geni enjoys a product integration with FamilyTreeDNA, meaning that DNA results can be transferred securely in a click without manual export and import, for users who tested with Family Tree DNA.

* The matching on Geni works right now (unlike the MyHeritage matching which accepts free DNA uploads now, but the matching will be released soon).

* The matching is tightly integrated into the Geni World Family Tree, allowing relationships to be confirmed or refuted using DNA, and marked as such.

* Y-DNA and mtDNA data from public websites Ysearch.org and Mitosearch.org was loaded into Geni, enriching it with 228,000 DNA-endowed profiles.

* Y-DNA and mtDNA results have been propagated on Geni through the paternal and maternal lines, enriching more than half a million profiles on Geni with DNA information.”

DNA privacy on Geni

“As described in Geni’s blog post, users can control the privacy of their DNA information at https://www.geni.com/account_settings/profile_privacy – whether haplogroups can be viewed by all Geni users or just their Family Group; whether other Geni users can match their DNA against the users’; whether to propagate Y- and Mitochondrial DNA to their paternal-line and maternal-line relatives, respectively, and whether their name is displayed with that propagation; and finally whether DNA uploaded to relatives’ profiles can be propagated to the user’s profile. This is a very comprehensive suite of settings to allow users to be as public or private with their DNA information as they choose.

“DNA transferred or uploaded to Geni may be attached to private or public profiles. DNA attached to private profiles cannot be viewed except by close relatives and curators. In any case, Geni never displays the raw DNA data itself — no Y-DNA STR markers, no Mitochondrial DNA mutations, and no Autosomal nucleotides.

“Autosomal DNA from Ancestry and 23andMe can also be uploaded to Geni, but the utilization of that data is still under development. It will take a few more months until matches are available for Ancestry and 23andMe results on Geni.

“For details on how the DNA features work on Geni, see https://www.geni.com/blog/geni-adds-dna-to-the-world-family-tree-394127.html

“Autosomal DNA uploaded to MyHeritage will not be transferred to Geni.

“Y-DNA and mtDNA uploaded to Geni will not be transferred to MyHeritage, because MyHeritage doesn’t support Y-DNA and mtDNA. Autosomal DNA from Ancestry and 23andMe uploaded to Geni will be transferred to MyHeritage in the future, allowing matches between autosomal DNA data uploaded to the two services.

“Geni’s DNA Terms of Use, available for viewing at https://www.geni.com/dna-tests/terms_of_use reflect the same user-friendly revisions that MyHeritage made shortly after its DNA release, in particular that the user is NOT granting a transferrable or permanent license. Further, DNA test results will not be given to any third-party without the user’s informed consent, which is opt in and clearly displayed as such.”

Bridges

“Because MyHeritage and Geni are owned by the same company, bridges were built between the two services in order to provide benefits to the users of each service. The main bridge is matching, based on technology developed by MyHeritage. Trees on MyHeritage are automatically matched with the Geni tree (as well as the MyHeritage trees and MyHeritage historical records). Profiles on the Geni tree are automatically matched with the MyHeritage trees and MyHeritage historical records. Matches lead the way to discoveries and it is common for users on MyHeritage to contact users on Geni following a match they received, or vice versa.
If a user has a tree on MyHeritage and another tree on Geni, they are not synced, and changes in one of them do not update the other. Because of this, having trees on both sites is not recommended, and it is advised for each user to choose the service that he/she prefers and maintain the tree on that service only. Such syncing is not really possible because each tree on MyHeritage has one owner, but on Geni anyone can edit any public profile, and merge it with another profile causing sub-trees to merge (e.g. merging a small tree into the World Family Tree), so syncing with Geni is incompatible MyHeritage’s private tree model.

“MyHeritage has a search engine for historical records, called SuperSearch. For the benefit of that search engine, MyHeritage maintains a read-only copy of the non-private tree profiles of Geni, as a collection on MyHeritage SuperSearch. This means MyHeritage has a subset of the Geni data, but that subset cannot be edited on MyHeritage — whenever something gets modified on Geni, the copy on MyHeritage is automatically updated, but the copy is a data collection, it’s not a living, breathing, editable tree. The Geni copy that is on MyHeritage allows genealogists making a search on MyHeritage to also discover information that is on Geni (one search covers everything).”

20 Comments

Your article states “* Y-DNA and mtDNA data from public websites Ysearch.org and Mitosearch.org was loaded into Geni, enriching it with 228,000 DNA-endowed profiles.”
Since I have uploaded to both Ysearch and Mitosearch how might I access those results on Geni? Is there a way when logged in to identify those results and tie them to my tree on Geni?

Hi David, we are planning on an outreach email in partnership with Family Tree DNA to help YSearch and Mitosearch users claim their data on Geni and merge it with any existing profiles they already have on Geni. We haven’t started that yet, but we will send you a message on Geni to facilitate the process.

Nancy Schlegel
on July 6, 2016 at 2:22 pm

I’m confused about “having trees on both sites is not recommended”, as syncing between them is not possible…

We can’t delete anything added Geni – so is MyHeritage recommending that we remove any trees added at MyHeritage when the companies were separate? – and if so, does removing require a paid subscription, or can I do with free id?

Hi Nancy, you can absolutely delete information you’ve added to MyHeritage or Geni. The reason we don’t recommend having both, is that you’d have to keep the updated individually. Some users choose to do so, but it’s twice as much work. You do not need a paid subscription to either site, to remove what you’ve added.

On Geni it gets a bit more complicated if your profiles have been merged with other profiles for the same individual, contributed by other users. In that case, deleting the merged profile is also taking away what other users have added. In these cases it’s best to just remove the information that you uniquely contributed, or else the other contributors may choose to un-delete the profile to add back what they’ve lost. Geni’s Customer Service can help if the situation becomes difficult.

It’s not true that you don’t need a paid subscription to delete your data at MyHeritage. I was given a free three-year Premium subscription courtesy of the Guild of One-Name Studies. When that expired I found that I was completely locked out of my MyHeritage account because I had over 250 people in my tree. I still can’t access that account to delete the extra people from my tree. All I can do is delete the entire account and start all over again.

Nancy Schlegel
on July 7, 2016 at 3:40 pm

Mike, thanks for reply – tried to log into my free MyHeritage account, & found I now have bigger problems: my account only contains DNA upload screen for my 2nd cousin George – one of 3 accounts I administer at FTDNA (including also my own & my brother’s), all using my same email address… perhaps MyHeritage software not handling?

All access to tree I created when opening my MyHeritage id several years ago, is missing… so cannot even try to delete my tree, to see if I run into problems like Debbie Kennett, below.

Contacting customer service.

cmilne
on July 6, 2016 at 5:10 pm

Interesting. I had deleted all of my information on Geni a couple of years ago out of frustration. So, I just manually entered a few generations, and so far all I can get is offers to subscribe for a fee (while, presumably, offering my entered information to Geni’s paying customers?).

You can build your tree as large as you want on Geni for free, and you can merge yours into the big tree (over 104 million profiles) for free.

Enno Borgsteede
on July 11, 2016 at 1:56 pm

Mike, I noticed that you may be able to merge when one of the profiles was made by yourself, but merging duplicates in parts not made by yourself is not possible without paying. Moreover, connecting sources from My Heritage to a Geni profile requires a paid account too, where it is free on FamilySearch. I find that quite odd, because adding sources to the tree adds to its value, and should therefore be encouraged, not prevented by a pay wall.

“Merging duplicates in parts not made by yourself is not possible without paying” — this is a difference between matching and merging. Geni’s tree matches are a paid feature, because we feel that it adds value by automatically finding places where your tree can be extended using existing data on the site. Merging is free, however. So if you know of a profile that matches one of your own, you can merge that without needing a Geni Pro subscription.

Randy Schoenberg
on July 7, 2016 at 10:39 am

You can do most everything for free on Geni. http://help.geni.com/entries/471431-Is-Geni-free- If you are hitting the paywall, it is probably because you are using the Search feature. Try a Google search (add +site:geni.com to the Google search). That will get you all of the public profiles for free.

Breya Warnstaff
on July 6, 2016 at 6:57 pm

I just hate having to pay for two premium services at both places. It’s really frustrating. I have been with Geni since almost day one and have logged and researched over 10,000 relatives where I see tons of people just adding to both sites without any source documentation and it’s terribly frustrating for me as I am working on my Masters in Genealogy. I would love to see them bridged or Geni get the same search/match features. The one thing of MyHeritage I like is the tree builders, maps, etc.

Barb Glassel
on July 6, 2016 at 10:40 pm

Please explain if a free subscription’s tree in My Heritage can be used as a basis or merged, when the subscriber decides to participate in My Heritage’s pay site, Premium Plus. Or must the Premium Plus subscription start all over “from scratch” building a tree?

On MyHeritage a Premium or PremiumPlus subscription extends the size of your existing tree — you do not have to start over.

Carole Magnuson
on July 7, 2016 at 12:07 pm

“Matching on MyHeritage is for autosomal DNA data, and available for all users who have taken a DNA test on 23andMe, Ancestry, or the Family Tree DNA Family Finder test. The matching is planned for release in the late July – early August timeframe, with ethnicity reports and other DNA features to be released afterwards. For users who upload their DNA data now, matching will be free, permanently (thereafter MyHeritage has hinted that it may become a paid feature for users who upload their DNA data later on).”

Will this be a free feature for those of us who were caught up in the MyHeritage takeover of 23andMe DNA data some time ago? I would like to be able to acknowledge people by selecting the “match” feature, but I can’t without a paid subscription. It sounds like I, and others who are not paid subscribers, won’t be covered. This needs to be rectified so that we can confirm matches, too, for free.

Marja Pirttivaara
on July 20, 2016 at 7:20 am

The guidelines for curators (rights and obligations) should be updated to cover DNA issues as these volunteering superusers (hundreds of them) with very broad rights to see, manage and change all profiles, even private profiles and profiles with DNA. The Geni curators’ guidelines should be transparent to everyone just like Family Tree DNA GAP rules for project admins are. This is “soft regulation” approach, when companies take care of provacy, ethics etc no need to turn to “hard regulation” so often. Inclusion of DNA into family trees can cause complicated situations and it would be the benefit of everyone to see the Geni curatos’ guidelines, updated to this changed and more complex situation with DNA data.

Scott
on November 26, 2016 at 8:37 pm

I’ve been working with Geni…finally. In regard to the propagation feature, how is a recent split within a Y-haplogroup recognized? Are both SNPs propagated across lineages? To date these have been distinct SNPs to help isolate family branches/groups.

Judy G. Russell
on November 26, 2016 at 11:05 pm

I’d take this discussion over to the Geni forums for more in-depth discussions.

Sherry
on February 27, 2017 at 4:05 pm

Why all these sites advertise free history research that’s a lie you click on it and they want money and most of the time its not the right person

Judy G. Russell
on February 27, 2017 at 4:51 pm

Only some of the resources on any of these sites are free. The rest cost money to find, prepare, digitize and put online. Somebody has to pay the piper.